Very cool, Aggie--really like that Hanie Black Widow and Amber's pinup.

How is your Captain America set coming along?

Thanks MonkeyMcGee, I also really like the Black Widow sketch, and I think Amber and Liz did a great job working together on that puzzle (versus each artist drawing a separate pinup on each side of the puzzle like a lot of the artists did).

On the Captain America set, I now need only 6 artists, so it is more than 90% complete (I have 64 out of 70). Although I've seen some AP's from 3 or 4 other artists who weren't on UD's sketch count list, so I'm trying to figure out if they had any pack inserted sketches. I haven't updated that thread in a while, so I will try to get it updated later today. Thanks!

Every week or two I check for Captain America sketches for my set, hoping to see one posted without the artist being identified that I would normally miss in my regular searches. While I don't need the Cheung for my set (I was lucky enough to pull 2 of them from boxes!), I got an incredible deal. Note to sellers: don't end your auctions at 2:30 PM during the week, and try to identify the artist. Otherwise, you might end up selling a Jim Cheung Captain America sketch for only $30.

I missed the Hetrick Ghost Rider when you posted earlier--very nice, Aggie

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinhead767

That Ghost Rider sketch is pretty awesome. Then again, Hetrick's stuff usually is.

Thanks guys, always impressed by Hetrick's sketches, and the Ghost Rider is very cool. I was a little surprised to win it... but I guess a UK seller and ending around noon on a Saturday meant there weren't a lot of bidders. The picture doesn't do it justice, maybe I will try to experiment with my scanner and see if I can do better. I know I've read a few comments by Roy and Monkey McGee about adjusting the scanner settings, so I'll have to see if I can figure out what to do.

I always love Bianca's work! And I've been lucky to pick up a few AP's from her on ebay. She used a red glitter pen to put highlights in Black Widow's hair, which you can't tell from the picture. But it looks very cool in hand.

It's not the scanner it's the editing software after you scan. Just use the contrast or levels adjustment to darken the black areas to what you can see on the actual cards. Usually the colors darken as well and look really nice. Scanners unless you have one with a lot of controls tend to scan light.

It's not the scanner it's the editing software after you scan. Just use the contrast or levels adjustment to darken the black areas to what you can see on the actual cards. Usually the colors darken as well and look really nice. Scanners unless you have one with a lot of controls tend to scan light.

Thanks for the tip Roy! I will try it on a couple of cards this weekend and see how they come out.

I always love Bianca's work! And I've been lucky to pick up a few AP's from her on ebay. She used a red glitter pen to put highlights in Black Widow's hair, which you can't tell from the picture. But it looks very cool in hand.

I was on the fence about going for that card. I really like it, and would love to add a couple more Avengers Assemble sketches to my collection. Congrats. That was a good pick-up.

It's not the scanner it's the editing software after you scan. Just use the contrast or levels adjustment to darken the black areas to what you can see on the actual cards. Usually the colors darken as well and look really nice. Scanners unless you have one with a lot of controls tend to scan light.

This is what I do. I use Picasa to edit my scans (it's free). I typically will just hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button after I straighten and crop the card to reduce the work I have to do.

Then I got to the "Fine Tune" tab and mess with the "Shadows", "Highlights", and "Color Tint" sliders until I get something close to what the card really shows. I know that oranges and greens are weird with my scanner, so I just accept I'll never get those exactly right.

I'm sure if I paid for a proper photo editing suite I could do a lot more, but this works for me.

As for your pickups, totally agree with Spider-Fan on the Black Widow--that's a hot card

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I no longer own any sports cards in case you find one of my old selling threads. Sorry.

Haha... had my eye on that Red too. Trying to be extra picky these days, and losing

Looks like you are going for a Retro parallel sketch set... yeah?

Bianca has been posting a few AP's each week, so it's been fun picking up a few of them. I think I forgot about one that ended late last week, maybe a Lady Death?

On the Marvel Retro, yes I am slowly trying to put a base sketch set together. I have 20 so far, so one third of the set. I'm at the point where I will have to decide if I am really serious about completing the set. Originally I thought it would be a cool challenge, but over the weekend I was figuring out the cost of putting a set together, and even if I can get a lot of them for $15-20/sketch, that's still going to be a minimum of $1k. For now I will probably still try to pick up 1 or 2 cards each week and see how it progresses.

If you are going after that Enchantress... Yeah I've been watching it but I just won a couple Cherry cards so I'm not going to bid. In fact, I think that might be the same reason I ended up not bidding on the last couple I really liked.

I've got an okay Cable and a weak Northstar if you are looking to trade.

I have several sketch cards I've picked up the past two months that I need to take pictures of and uploaded, but I wanted to show off some commissions I got in this week. Only the 2nd time I've commissioned an artist, and everything went great! Marco Carrillo was auctioning off some of his AP's on ebay, and I initially won both a Cherry Series 2 AP and a Women of Marvel AP. Within 2 days of sending Marco my ideas, he provided me with pencils, and then he finished the cards a couple of days later. All in between working on sketches for an upcoming set!

I was so happy with the process and how the cards turned out, that I won a second Cherry AP and 2 more Women of Marvel AP's he had on ebay. Again, he provided pencils very quickly, and had the cards finished and mailed off within a week or me telling him what I wanted. Shipping took a bit more time than normal (since he lives in Mexico), but it wasn't too bad. I think around 2-2.5 weeks, with most of that time sitting at Mexico customs.